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Our readers will remember the sudden passing last spring of Young Stars Theatre co-founder, Jack Bennett, during his run as Harold Hill in YST’s “Music Man”. Known in town and in the theatre community as one of the nicest guys around, his loss was felt deeply by so many, none more so than the YST community. Something that would surely bring Jack tremendous joy is the fact that his beloved youth theatre company is growing and thriving. I sat down with co-artistic directors, Gloria Bennett and Miranda Miller to talk about how far they’ve come and where they’re going.
Last summer was the first summer without Jack at the helm so parents in the membership company of YST who had theatre backgrounds, stepped in to run and direct the shows. “They took over and ran everything all summer,” says Gloria. It was, and continues to be, something she is overwhelmed by and incredibly grateful for. After a few months, Gloria and daughter, Miranda, realized they could and should run the company together. “We both quit teaching our private classes to focus on running the company. We had to just step back and say, ‘we can’t run the theater like it was with Gloria and Jack. We had to pretend like it’s a new theater and run it and figure out how Gloria and Miranda can run it.” Gloria used to be music director on all the shows while Jack would direct. The current summer camp show, “High School Musical”, is Gloria’s first time directing in 27 years. The first summer show was “Bye Bye Birdie”, which she produced, Miranda was musical director, Liz Barone directed, and Avalon Kerr choreographed. Cade Johnston is stage managing and running lights and sound for all the summer shows.
“It’s going great, but it’s been a lot. We miss Jack every day. “The Little Mermaid” was the first time Miranda and I took on the duties together where she was the musical director and I directed. She also choreographed. We’ve been rotating jobs to see where we fit best, figuring it out, hiring great people.”
“It’s been a constant learning curve,” says Miranda. “I’ve been around it my whole life, but I am used to how Gloria and Jack did things, and so it’s been interesting and challenging – but also fun to figure out how we want to do it. For instance, we don’t have someone now around that can just build things that they come up with in their head the way Jack did, so we have to be creative and either make something different, or find someone who can be crafty. So yeah, we’re using new people to do new things. And I took over a lot of the jobs like editing videos and setting up the streaming for shows, making graphics, programs for the shows and all kinds of different things that I just never thought I would be doing. So it’s been crazy, but I feel like I’m at a point where I kind of know what I’m doing now and we can build from there.”
“It’s evolving and growing in an unexpected way,” marvels Gloria. “And I think the key was that we both had to pretend that we had just decided to rent a theater space and start a theatre company. What would we do? It’s been amazing to see how far we’ve come and all that’s going on now.”
Up this weekend are the performances of “High School Musical” and the next camp is a dual show camp of two one-act plays – one is about zombies (10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse) and one is a satire about bad plays (All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play). “I was super proud of Bye Bye Birdie,” says Miranda, “and I’m very excited for “High School Musical” because we have almost 40 kids. And it’s double cast and they’re picking stuff up really fast. And I think it’s gonna be good!” There are still some spots open for the final camp, which, as I mentioned, are plays, not musicals. Miranda says that will be different and an opportunity for kids who may want to focus more on acting rather than singing and dancing. “I have never seen either play,” she says, “so that’s kind of exciting to me. I love watching new plays here that unfold in ways that I’ve never seen before. It’s going to be directed by Liz Barone and John Farley, which will be a really fun team.”
The fall show is going to be “James and the Giant Peach” with Liz Barone directing and Miranda handling the choreography and musical direction. “It has some really fun music and the kids are really excited about it,” says Miranda.
And as for the future of YST? It’s looking bright. Gloria and Miranda have plans to franchise the company because, “Everybody needs to have this, these kids need this,” Gloria says emphatically. “The kids need this outlet, they need to figure out how to be with each other. Post pandemic, kids are still struggling. There needs to be Young Stars Theatres everywhere. I just see that. I love that.” It’s a massive process Gloria tells us, while also assuring us that they’re not going anywhere. “This is our home. We plan on being here – training, working, producing shows – with the growth of this company, this is always going to be home base. That’s my aim, goal, and dream.”
As Jack used to say, “you don’t go into youth theatre to get rich.” He was always here for the love of it and for the kids. Gloria and Miranda certainly share that sentiment and are carrying that legacy forward. “Going home after camp days without Jack has been really tough. But we are doing well – we are thriving,” says Gloria. “My favorite part of my job is seeing the kids grow,” says Miranda, “as people but also as performers. A lot of the kids have been in the program for years – and just seeing them grow into good human beings and also just getting better as performers, singers and actors – it just makes it all worth it.”
One of their longtime students, Ava Broneer, was just performing on a Broadway stage recently as a nominee for the iconic Jimmy Awards in New York City. As Gloria watched it on TV she said, “I bawled my eyes out and thought, ‘why can’t Jack be here to see this?’” The truth is, Jack Bennett is still very present in everything they do and he would most definitely beam with pride at how all the kids and his beloved theatre are thriving and truly living the motto “The Show Must Go On”!
Young Stars Theatre is the resident company at Fremont Centre Theatre located at 1000 Fremont Avenue in South Pasadena. For tickets and information visit YoungStarsTheatre.org
